Patience Is Not a Virtue But a Necessity!

Panoramic view from a favorite gelato place

Much of what I will share is quite positive; we wouldn't have bought a house here otherwise. But as with everything in life it must be balanced.

We used an Italian bank to finance the loan for the property. During that time I had to learn how to send money from the states to a checking account to pay the loan as well as utilities on the house. The utilities use direct withdrawal but each requires a form to be filled that is unique to the utility and turned into a different place in the area. You can try faxing or emailing but almost ALL of my emails are ignored and faxes are often busy. After a year of working with our property manager and my own efforts everything was set up.

Then... last fall the original bank sold our loan and all the accounts with it to another bank. Only the gas withdrawal remained effective. The process took nine months to a total migration that occurred on May 27th. In each step of the process my bank account number called an IBAN number in Europe changed. With the full migration of information, I am not sure that the gas still works as the bill was posted but has not been withdrawn as of today.

The first to deal with was electricity. The past due bills for no apparent reason kept being sent to the realtor from which we bought the property five years ago. When the electric was turned off for nonpayment the realty finally contacted our property manager. He then had to make many, many phone calls to get them to change the address. They would not turn the electric back on until I paid the bills and signed a new contract. I did this as soon as I was aware of all of these circumstances. Also realize that the paperwork is in Italian so Google Translate is a must, as well as learning some Italian phrases. After much persistence on the property manager's part the electric was turned on. They were not able to pay the most recent bill or do the direct withdrawal, so the first point of business when we arrived was taking care of all of this. You can pay your utility bills at the local post offices so we did that but you must bring a passport and pay a euro or two. I sat in the car while Mike tried to take care of this but no... the bill was in my name so I had to come in and show my passport. We were fortunate because you must take a number at the post office to be served and it can be quite crowded at times. Next we visited the local Internet Center to print off the form for direct withdrawal and fax it to the electric company. That went fine. You just need to know that they are not open from 1:30-4:30 each day. A few days later the new electric showed up in my bank account. All is well there.

Next up water. I noticed that no water bill had been paid since last November but the property manager said no late bills had shown up at the house and I had received no emails so I waited until I got here. There were two late bills and I was able to pay them online. No response was given to my email sent prior to this about fixing up the direct withdrawal. I tried faxing a new form. Busy signals for two days. I then decided to go to the actual water department in our town. It is only open from 8:30-12:30 on Mondays. Monday morning I arrived at 8:30 on the dot and there was an line out the door. Since we had to be somewhere else at 9:45 we left. Arriving back in town by noon, I ran over to the office where the line was still out the door. They were serving number 27 and I was number 52. I waited for over an hour. They locked the doors at 12:30 but continued to help those who were there before. When I finally heard my number called, I found out that the lady behind the counter spoke no English so with Google Translate on my phone I communicated my problem. She punched many keys before she asked if I had paid my late bills. I had and I am still somewhat perplexed that she didn't see that as the money has run through my account in the states. She then said that she did not need the withdrawal form as all was well. Since our communication was so mixed up I never could get her to understand that the payment was made my me not by bank withdrawal. She gave back the form and I left.

View from the inside the Water Department

I did some more searching around at my Italian bank account and noticed an "enable" button by the water withdrawal. Thinking perhaps that selecting this would fix my problem, I did and was told that I would be unable to access without setting up "Strong Authentication." I tried. To make this long story less long, the process involves sending a code to a cell phone and it won't work on anything but an Italian cell phone. The next day I chatted online with the bank and after a 30 minute chat was told I would have to go to the nearest branch and get a "token," since I did not have an Italian cell phone. When I asked where the nearest branch was he said to check their website. The website said to go to Fabriano, which is an hour drive to the east. We arrived at 10:00 and did not find our bank. When we went into the bank which held the same address, they said it was not and had never been a branch of our bank. They looked up the nearest branch to Fabriano and sent us to the east coast of Italy to Pesaro. Fortunately this branch does not take a siesta and was open all afternoon. An hour and a half later, we found the branch and two hours later with many phone calls and signing of papers were given a paper token that required an Italian cell phone. In other words after a full day of driving and spending time in offices we are no better off then when started. Next step - check out cheap cell phone to keep in the house for emergencies, as well as editing bank accounts.

To recap, we have been here going on three weeks. The electric is good to go. I may have to pay water online each month when I think it is due. I am still figuring out the gas. Last year we began the process of acquiring broadband wifi. That was concluded two days after we arrived. Still no evidence of direct withdrawal for this despite the fact that the company filled out the form in front of me.

Living here each June brings many pleasures but at a cost!